Steven Spielberg

"Spielberg" redirects here. For other uses, see Spielberg (disambiguation).

Steven Spielberg
KBE
Spielberg in 2023
Born (1946-12-18) December 18, 1946 (age 77)
Cincinnati, Ohio, US
Alma materCalifornia State University, Long Beach (BA)
Occupations
  • Film director
  • producer
  • screenwriter
Years active1969–present
Works
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1985; div. 1989)​
  • ​
    (m. 1991)​
Children6, including Sasha, Sawyer and Destry
FatherArnold Spielberg
Relatives
AwardsFull list
Signature

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE (/ˈspiːlbɜːrɡ/; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is the most commercially successful director in film history.[1] He is the recipient of many accolades, including three Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards as well as the AFI Life Achievement Award in 1995, the Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in 2001, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2006, the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 2009 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015. Seven of his films have been inducted into the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant".[2][3]

Spielberg was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and grew up in Phoenix, Arizona.[4] He moved to California and studied film in college. After directing several episodes for television, including Night Gallery and Columbo, he directed the television film Duel (1971), his first full-length film which later received an international theatrical release. He made his theatrical debut with The Sugarland Express (1974) and became a household name with the summer blockbuster Jaws (1975). He directed more escapist box office successes with Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and the original Indiana Jones trilogy (1981–89). He explored drama in The Color Purple (1985) and Empire of the Sun (1987).

In 1993, Spielberg directed back-to-back blockbuster hits with the science fiction thriller Jurassic Park, the highest-grossing film ever at the time, and the Holocaust drama Schindler's List, which has often been listed as one of the greatest films ever made. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for the latter and the World War II epic Saving Private Ryan (1998). Spielberg has since directed the science fiction films A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Minority Report (2002), and War of the Worlds (2005); the historical dramas Amistad (1997), Munich (2005), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), Bridge of Spies (2015) and The Post (2017); the comedy The Terminal (2004); the animated film The Adventures of Tintin (2011); the musical West Side Story (2021); and the semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans (2022).

Spielberg co-founded Amblin Entertainment and DreamWorks, and he has served as a producer for many successful films and television series, among them Poltergeist (1982), Gremlins (1984), Back to the Future (1985), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988) and Band of Brothers (2001). He has had a long collaboration with the composer John Williams, with whom he has worked for all but five of his feature films.[5][6] Several of Spielberg's works are considered among the greatest films in history, and some are among the highest-grossing films ever.[7] In 2013, Time listed him as one of the 100 most influential people,[8] and in 2023, Spielberg was the recipient of the first ever Time 100 Impact Award in the US.[9]

  1. ^ "Top Grossing Director at the Worldwide Box Office". The Numbers. Archived from the original on October 1, 2019. Retrieved December 25, 2022.
  2. ^ Kreps, Daniel (December 12, 2018). "'Jurassic Park,' 'The Shining,' 'Monterey Pop' Added to National Film Registry". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on April 21, 2022. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ McBride, Joseph (2010). Steven Spielberg: A Biography. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 9781604738377.
  5. ^ Caschetto, Maurizio (August 20, 2022). "History In The Making: The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration". The Legacy of John Williams. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  6. ^ Keegan, Rebecca (January 8, 2021). "John Williams and Steven Spielberg mark 40 years of collaboration". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 24, 2022. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  7. ^ "Top Lifetime Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on January 2, 2010. Retrieved April 21, 2022.
  8. ^ "Full List: The World's 100 Most Influential People". Time. April 18, 2013. Archived from the original on August 14, 2015. Retrieved December 24, 2022.
  9. ^ "Drew Barrymore and Ke Huy Quan Celebrate Steven Spielberg's Impact". Time. April 27, 2023. Archived from the original on May 3, 2023.